Prez Mahama commends religious leaders for promoting peaceful co-existence
The President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, has called on religious leaders to imbibe the spirit of religious co-existence among their followers.
Advertisement
He said the country was blessed with tolerant religious leaders who had mostly preached religious tolerance among their faithful.
Speaking at this year’s celebration of the birth of Prophet Mohammed (S.A.W) in Accra on Saturday, President Mahama called for the deepening of inter-faith dialogue among religious leaders.
“We cannot take the peaceful co-existence among the different religious faiths for granted.
“We must encourage this peaceful co-existence and must refrain from making statements that injure the feeling of other faiths,” the President emphasised.
The President, who traced the historical links between the Zongo communities and other indigenous societies, said that peaceful co-existence dated back to the period of the Trans-Saharan trade.
He asked the National Chief Imam and other religious leaders to continuously pray for the nation.
Sanitation
Touching on the theme for the celebration, which was “Good Sanitation Practice is Key to Human Development”, President Mahama asked all to make cleanliness an attitude.
“True worshippers of Allah must adhere to the tenets of cleanliness of their religion,” he said.
He therefore called for greater participation of the citizenry in the National Sanitation Day exercise on the first Saturday of every month.
Economic Challenges
President Mahama said 2014 had been one of the challenging periods for the country which required the collective efforts of all the citizenry to scale through in 2015.
He said the country had faced the challenges of labour unrests, a depreciating currency, demonstrations by political groupings and an economic dip, which almost saw inflation rising to 17 per cent.
But he was hopeful that with the collective effort of the citizenry, 2015 would be a better year.
Chief Imam
In a speech read on his behalf, the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Dr Usman Nuhu Sharabutu, said cleanliness was part of the Islamic faith and urged Muslims to keep their surroundings clean.
“The Prophet of Islam has urged us to wash our hands well before and after eating. This is also same after attending to the call of nature.”
This admonishment, he said, was made more than 1,400 years ago by the Prophet of Islam and was still relevant.
Sheikh Dr Sharabutu therefore urged Ghanaians to keep their surroundings clean to avoid the deadly cholera and Ebola outbreak, which had hit crisis levels in some parts of Africa.
He thanked the government and people of Turkey for the construction of the magnificent mosque for Muslims at Kawokudi on the Kanda Highway in Accra.
Present at the ceremony was the New Patriotic Party running mate, Dr Mahamud Bawumia, Party Chairman Paul Afoko, first National Vice Chairman, Mr Freddy Blay, and other members of the party.